Overview

The ESPEC type, which stands for experiment specification, is used to specify any parameters and files relevant to the usage of SUMMIT tool. An espec file is a simple text file, with a .espec extension, that records information used to run a given experiment. The information that can be stored in an espec file is fully general (ie, anything), and programs that read an espec file simply look for those entries that are relevant to them.

At present, espec files are used only as a means of interfacing with a corpus file. Click here to see a description of those keywords in an espec file relevant to controlling the operation of SUMMIT tools.

General Syntax

The syntax of a .espec file is very simple. The file consists of a number of lines, where lines are separated by newline characters. A line can be "continued" onto the next line by preceding the newline with a \:

  anything reading this espec file will \
     consider this to be one line

Comments start with a #: everything on the line following the # is ignored (including any \ characters, so comments cannot be continued onto the next line).

You may include other espec files by placing:

  include other.epsec

on a single line. This has precisely the same effect as if you had typed the contents of other.espec where it was included.

If <> appears on a single line, everything below that point in the file (including any includes) are ignored.

Within those constraints, anything is allowed in an espec file. However, individual programs that read from an espec file can insist on stronger constraints.